On this occasion we join Kolech in calling forthe creationof independent rabbinic divorce courts that would eventually integrate female Torah scholars as rabbinical judges.

We, like Kolech, believe that women can bring to the rabbiniccourt systemdirely needed female sensitivities during the divorce process.

…Gradually, women who are the product of intensive Torah education will be coming of age. They should be given a chance to make their special contribution to Halacha in a field that directly affects them.

After all, we trust female doctors with our lives, we trust female judges with enforcing justice, and we trust female business leaders with our economy.

The ‘Who is a Jew’ dispute has become even more contentious since Israel’s chief rabbinate has begun questioning conversions made under Orthodox auspices.

Susan Weiss—the founder and director of the CWJ and herself an observant Jew—has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to overturn the rabbinic court’s decision.

But she also states, “We should have civil marriage. It’s going to have to happen.”

One reason that issue is so controversial, according to Weiss, is that it raises questions about what it means for Israel to be a Jewish state and about the connection of religious and ethnic Jewish identity.

The Israel Air Force will receive its first non-[Halachic] Jewish pilot next week, when Andrei (whose last name is classified) receives his wings at the end of a long flight course.

The blue-eyed, 24-year-old immigrant from Ukraine arrived in Israel nine years ago, in the framework of the Jewish Agency's Na'aleh study program for youngsters with Jewish backgrounds from the former Soviet Union, arriving ahead of their parents.

His Jewish father and non-Jewish mother had planned to immigrate to Israel after him, but the plan did not work out.

His mother and father will, however, come to the ceremony to see him receive his wings and become an F-16 fighter pilot.

The old axiom "time is money" may apply. Let us not consider paying anyone to convert. That would be immoral and illegal.

But let us consider payment, or tax credits, for those who take the basic Judaism courses that can serve as preparation for conversion.

We are already spending many thousands of dollars to prepare each convert (if one takes the budget and divides it by the numbers who actually complete the process).

So why not help the person who gives up 350 hours to study. Israel subsidizes some 75% of the actual cost of study for university students. We make generous government grants available to those who wish to learn in Yeshivot.

Why not make grants available to non-Jewish Israelis who wish to study Judaism.

I believe we would see a mega increase in the numbers of people registering for these predatory courses.

"In a world where Jewish identity and status is frequently the object of debate, the range of opinions expressed by the Orthodox rabbinate on the issue of conversion has never been monolithic.

Their diverse pronouncements and rulings demonstrate the range of lenient as well as stringent policy positions available to Jewish leaders as they struggle to grapple with the challenges the reality of intermarriage has presented to our community in modern settings."

Jess Olson is an assistant professor of modern Jewish history at Yeshiva University in New York.

Regardless of the principles at stake, whether to streamline entrance of immigrants into Israeli society, or preserve an ideal of religious purity, there is something gratuitously cruel about the use of converts in service of any agenda, regardless of the side of the combatants.

No converts ask to be fodder for Jewish culture wars; indeed, few ask for more than to simply live their lives as Jews, accepted as full members of their communities.

All power struggles have their victims; it is a dark time in the Jewish world that those victims are the ones least able to defend themselves.

An Orthodox Jewish film school was an improbable notion at Ma'ale's founding 19 years ago by four modern Orthodox "film fanatics," says one founder, Udi Lion, who disputes the view held widely among secular Israeli filmmakers that the school was established as a front for the National Religious movement.

Israel's religious Jews, about 20% of the population, were unrepresented in film and television, despite their growing political power, Mr. Lion said.

Their rare depiction was exotic or hostile, noted Moti Shklar, another founder: "Settlers were always either praying or dancing. They weren't human."

Like a family, Ma'ale is pulled in different directions, with its students crossing Orthodox boundaries, its founders heading large and powerful institutions, and its films enabling Israelis to look inside religious life as religious people put it on the screen.

The Marc and Henia Liebhaber Prize for the Promotion of Religious Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism in Israel, established against the backdrop of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1996, has so far distributed more than half a million shekels to twelve spiritual leaders in Israel.

On December 4, 2008, the Liebhaber Prize for Religious Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism of 100,000 NIS was awarded in Jerusalem to Muki Tsur, member of Kibbutz Ein Gev, who is a teacher and philosopher, student of Gershom Scholem and Nathan Rotenstreich, and an outstanding example of a personal commitment to openness, tolerance and the values of democracy as reflected in the fundamental values of Judaism.

The Ramat Hahayal outlet of Tiv Taam grocery chain may continue operating in its current format, including opening for business on Saturday, the Tel Aviv District Court has ruled.

The decision came in response to a request for an injunction against the chain filed by Tel Aviv residents, who argued that the business operates in breach of municipal ordinances, including limits on the sale of pork, operating on the Sabbath, and operation without a business license.

The residents asked the court to either order the grocery to shut down altogether or close on Saturdays, and also to block the sale of pork at the branch.

The Magistrate's Court rejected the request about a month ago, and the applicants have now been denied their request for appeal.

This coming Shabbos was to be first without chilul Shabbos in Sde Dov Airport pertaining to civilian flights but the move seems to be on hold and once again, IDF soldiers working in the airport will be compelled to work on Shabbos again.

The chilul Shabbos is not for military flights, but for civilian flights to Eilat and other close destinations. The control tower and other operational tasks in the airport fall under the jurisdiction of the IDF.

Honestly? It's about time. Just like any other Jewish act – namely a mitzvah, and what’s more a mitzvah that involves inflicting pain on a helpless eight-day-old baby - the brit milah has also arrived at a crossroads.

And against all criticism and warnings, the decision to give it a pass is becoming increasingly trendy in Israel.

This is an invitation to Tali Farkash to get out of the conceptual box in which she's locked up, and realize how wrong she is to claim that for seculars the brit milah is a purely social act, and since this is the case – it's just the same to her that they remain uncircumcised.

Doctors, nurses and other workers at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon have declared a labor dispute in connection with ancient graves discovered at the construction site of a new inpatient wing.

The Office of Religious Affairs says the graves are Jewish, and the construction cannot continue. The workers are afraid that an $11-million donation for the new wing will be swallowed up by the delay.

Starting on January 5, a publictransportrevolution will take place in Beit Shemesh. Egged, which now runs all the buses in the area, will hand over the steering wheel to Superbus, a private company that is currently responsible primarily for bus services in and around Ramle.

Superbus will take over all the routes between Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem with the exception of the "mehadrin" 418 route to and from Ramat Beit Shemesh and the non-mehadrin 417, which also serves Ramat Beit Shemesh.

When news of the proposed change was announced, many Beit Shemesh residents, the majority of whom are not haredi, were worried that Superbus would be a "mehadrin" operation, with women - conforming to a haredi dress code - forced to sit at the back of the bus.

This view probably arose from the fact that Superbus does indeed run mehadrinbuses to the haredi town of Modi'in Illit. However, the bulk of the company's operations are in the Shoham and Ramle-Lod areas, where it has been running standard "secular" buses since 2002.

The Superbus routes serving the Beit Shemesh area (with the exception of the existing mehadrinroute from Ramat Beit Shemesh to Modi'in Illit) will not bemehadrin.

Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was one of the most important Jewish spiritual leaders in modern times.

While he was the leader of the Lubavitcher (Chabad) Hasidic Movement, his influence was, and still is, felt far beyond the limits of "Lubavitch" alone.

The medallion face bears a portrait of the Rebbe. The reverse design, which will be common to all the medals in the "Jewish Sages" series, represents the wisdom and holiness that have emanated from the works of our Jewish Sages, throughout the generations.

If you asked a Chabad Lubavitch Hassid, they would tell you the shape of the gold seven-branched candelabra that stood in the Second Temple, and which gave its form to the nine-branched Hanukkiah used today, was not rounded, as it appears on the emblem of the State of Israel and on the Arch of Titus.

However, that theory is now facing a challenge in the form of a new book published by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem's Old City.

The elegantly designed book, titled "A Menorah of Pure Gold," pulls the scholarly rug out from under Chabad's differently shaped candelabra.

Haredim want secularhigher education, but are hampered by a lack of basic math and English skills, according to a new study.

Fifty-seven percent of 148 haredi men surveyed in a study conducted by researchers at the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies said that they had looked into attaining a college degree, and another 15% said they had received advice about the possibility of pursuingstudies ina college or some other institute ofhigher education.

The [researchers’] main recommendation was that haredim receive economic supportcollege education, as some 70% of the haredi men surveyed said that they would be willing to pursue a college degree if they received such support.

Gedolei Yisroel shlitavoiced their staunch opposition to Merkaz Rabbanei Eretz Yisroel, noting it poses a dire threat to the conceptual and halachic independence of rabbonim in Israel and could herald a takeover attempt that would foist certain opinions on all rabbonim and the entire public in Israel.

A short time ago Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar founded and became president of an organization called Merkaz Rabbanei Eretz Yisroel, which seeks to unite all rabbis in Israel.

The aim of the organization is to serve as a supreme rabbinical body in the State of Israel and it threatens to place itself in a position to determine Halacha andhashkofohin every area for the entire public, including kashrus, mikvehs, conversion, etc.

Growing tensions between ultra-Orthodox and religious residents in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, have recently escalated into violence as three teen girls were beaten up by haredim who claimed they were "immodestly" dressed.

The incident was the last in a series of reported attacks by members of the Haredi Community faction on their religious neighbors, prompted by the latter's' alleged "promiscuity" and negative influence on haredi children.

It appears the Eida Chareidis Modesty Committee is seeking to set new rules for shopping in Ramot Daled [Jerusalem], whose rav, HaGaon HaRav Fuchs Shlita also serves on the Eida and is tied to Vishnitz.

Rav Fuchs is calling for two checkout lines at the neighborhood grocery store, one for men and women.

The Rav is also calling on residents to do their “big shopping” towards the beginning of the week and not towards Shabbos as is the case today in the hope of limiting the crowd at in the isles at any one time